Bruce Wayne
Bruce Wayne '''was the main protagonist of ''The Dark Knight Trilogy, ''described as a billionaire socialite who witnessed his parent's murder at age 8, and later traveled the world for seven years to seek the means to fight injustice, fear and chaos before returning to Gotham City to become '''Batman, a bat-masked vigilante hailed as the city's "Dark Knight", who dedicated himself to protecting it from its criminal underworld at night as a means to uphold justice, hope and order. Biography Origin and Early Life Born in October 1975 in Gotham City to Thomas Wayne, a billionaire socialite employed as a doctor, and Martha Kane-Wayne, an Irish-Catholic debutante, Bruce Wayne grew up home-schooled on his parents' Wayne Manor estate (since there was no public school anywhere near the estate) apart from them and their trusted butler Alfred Pennyworth. Although the only child in the house, his loneliness eventually changed during his fourth birthday, when his parents brought in other children for him to befriend, but most spent his party running around and yelling. This left Bruce in a best friendship with the only well-behaved child among them, Rachel Dawes, who was the daughter of the mansion's housekeeper and lived in housing unit nearby. Despite having play dates with the other kid over the next three years, he secretly wished to stay away from some except Rachel, who was the friend he saw the most. One day at age 8, while playing with her in the garden greenhouse, Bruce fell down a dry well and into a cave, where he was attacked by a swarm of bats. His father rescued him, though Bruce developed a crippling fear of bats; the senior Wayne comforted his son by telling him that though people fall, they always have the strength to get up. Later, Bruce accompanied his parents into the city to see a new monorail system they built that just opened up for the public. Throughout the ride, his parents explained that Gotham was suffering from an economic downturn and enduring deeper into very hard times. To help it's citizens, his father nearly bankrupted his company, Wayne Enterprises, to build the monorails to unite the city, with Wayne Tower as the system central core, but it didn't seem enough. While watching a performance of Mefistofele ''at the Gotham Opera House nearby with both his parents, Bruce got frightened by a scene featuring a bat-like monster (which reminded him of the bats that attacked him in the well) and asked to leave. Once outside, the family was confronted by a mugger named Joe Chill, who shot both of Bruce's parents for dead for causing the depression to drive him out of his job and fled just as police patrol showed up to shelter the now orphaned boy. Thomas' last words to his son were to not be afraid. At Gotham Central Police Headquarters, one of the patrolmen, Det. Sgt. Jim Gordon, did his best to comfort Bruce with a coat while Police Lt. Gillian Loeb was able to capture Chill. Taken back home to watch as his parents' bodies were buried outside, a distraught Bruce was left cared for by Alfred, who arranged that he won't be taken into social service care. He blamed himself for his parents' murder: if had he not been frightened, the Waynes would not have encountered Chill, though Alfred assured him it was no one's fault but Chill's. At age 12, Bruce's home-school days ended when he inherited enough money from his ancestors to give himself a first-class education and attend Mark Twain High School in Ossaville, a town closer to Gotham. When the principle told Alfred that there was nothing more the school staff could give the boy, Bruce was scheduled to do his schoolwork with a series of tutors. His favorite subject was drama since he loved to read plays, and asked Alfred a lot of questions about drama when he learned that the butler was a child actor while growing up in England. At age 14, Bruce became interested in sports when he learned of a teen soccer league that just formed in the neighborhood. Although not enrolled in any of the public schools, he was somehow able to join one of the teams, but quit after his second practice since he probably wasn't the locker room type. But Bruce still had an interest in other sports, and at age 16, he asked Alfred if they could try skiing. Having learned of a ski resort in Vermont, the old butler phoned for reservations at a nearby lodge for their trip. Driving there, however, became hazardous when he and Bruce were caught in the middle of a blizzard, so they didn't check into the lodge until ten, when the resort was already closed and scheduled to be reopened at around six in the morning. While Alfred relaxed at the lounge, Bruce decided to ski alone and snuck out of their room before hiking to the resort in his skiing equipment. But right when he started sliding out of control down the mountain, a night watchman caught him in the act and called the rescue patrol, who found Bruce unconscious at the bottom of a shallow gorge with a bloody gash across his forehead, one of his skis lying in two pieces nearby and the other canting his leg in an unnatural angle. He was taken back to the lodge with a cast for his leg and bandage on his forehead, and rested in bed until Alfred came to check on him. Because Bruce had broken leg and slight concussion, a doctor who Alfred conferred with concluded that if the butler wanted to take the boy back to Gotham, he would need proper transportation. So, Alfred purchased twin-rotor Sikorsky helicopter to return home with the bandaged Bruce, setting it down on a field next to Wayne Manor. That following week, the bandages came off, and the Wayne family physician pronounced the young Wayne intact again. Bruce never thought of going skiing ever since, but his eventually shifted other athletics. He ordered a complete set of Olympic-grade gymnastics gear and spent mos of the summer with an instructor learning how to use them. He swam in the Olympic-size pool dug behind the garden before breakfast and lifted weights for several months, but was never able to do archery or mediocre skating. Rachel sometimes joined him at the manor to swim, jump on the trampoline or hang out. Bruce enjoyed the visits until he left the city at age 17 to attend Princeton University, where he studied Jungian archetypes and mono-myths. But he considered such topics absolutely nonessential to any conceivable life he wanted to lead, if it wasn't plain foolish. During class break one fatal morning, Bruce waited under a clock tower at the campus center for a cute girl from his advanced calculus class, who promised to meet him there so he could lend her his notes in exchange for buying him coffee. She never showed, and Bruce found his mind returning to the class he just finished, mainly on the story of Siddhartha that was told. Following his graduation and a car race that he he won in Missouri, he returned to Gotham to learn that Chill's prison sentence was being suspended in exchange for his testimony against local mobster Carmine Falcone. Intent on ensuring Chill didn't become reminder of disgrace under the eyes of the Wayne empire for what he did to his parents, Bruce waited outside the courtroom of Gotham District Courthouse with a gun under his sleeve to shoot and kill him with, but an assassin of Falcone's posing as a reporter did so first. Rachel, who was now the city's assistant District Attorney, drove him to an alleyway Falcone's restaurant to show him that things have grown much worse since the depression when Falcone rose to power from the criminal underworld flooding the city with organized crime, and Chill would have been the justice system's ace in the hole against him. Bruce dismissed that idea by telling her about his foiled plan, and she expressed disgust for his attempt to carry out blind vengeance without regard for justice, telling him that his father would be ashamed. Realizing she was right, he threw the gun into the harbor and confronted Falcone, who told him that he was ignorant of the nature of crime and he would never be able to face up against criminals as he didn't understand their world. Hoping to prove him wrong, Bruce got on a ship at the docks intending to travel the world in order to gain understanding of the criminal mind and seek the means of fighting injustice, becoming part of the criminal underworld as a result. Spending the first eighteen months as part of the ship's crew, he slept on rags at a corner of the engine room, ate what was left of everyone else's food and did work on deck by lifting heavy crate, pulling at cables, scraping paint of the hull and cleaning gunk from the bilges. Many of his much bigger and powerful crew mates, most notably the ship's bosun Hector, often tormented Bruce out of his witts, with each attack serving as a lesson. As the ship docked two miles offshore from Hong Kong, Bruce was sent on a dinghy to pick up a package from a Chinese national and return it to the ship. He waited until dawn at a small fisherman's pier that he tied his dinghy, but the package man never arrived and the freighter was gone. Luckily, Bruce was able to leave Hong Kong by sneaking into the engine room of a luxury liner and stowing away until it docked in Sydney. While there, he met with a young American named Zachary Dabb and helped him do charity work with the Aborigines, teaching the traveling billionaire a lesson on not to count on preparations in receiving gifts. Leaving that following week on a ship that dropped him off in Tanga, Bruce wandered the filthy marketplace and stopped by a fruit vendor, stealing a plum from the basket and escaping down alleyway to give it to a poor boy to finish. Shortly later, he got himself by a tramp steamer, and in the following months journeyed through a lot of Africa and some of Asia until settling down in North Korea. There, he accepted training in Kuk Sool Won under a master who was about to retire in the Pujanryang Mountains before moving on to South Korea, joining a gang of smugglers running flights into Pyongyang below radar and promising to some day hire them as a flight crew. Jumping off ship in Marrakesh, Bruce slept under a bridge for a couple night and signed onto a tanker bound for Great Britain. Upon arrival, he hung around London long enough to learn how to steal cars from the ship's cook, then shipped out on another freighter and found himself in Shanghai. One of the deckhands, nicknamed Stocky, had a way to make quick and easy money, which an interested Bruce saw as an opportunity to understand the kind of human deprived from the cherished. Together, they took a taxi to an airport on the city outskirts, where the job was to hijack a truck full of crates being loaded onto it by laborers, but Bruce began to feel fear of preparing to commit a crime for the first time and was exhilarated by it. The plan eventually succeeded, but both he and Stocky were cornered and arrested in a warehouse for their theft (ironically of Wayne Enterprises cargo, which the crates actually were) by a police squad who sent Bruce off to a Bhutanese prison, where he brawled with the inmates. Batman Begins Training and Return Home On his last day in the prison, a man named Henri Ducard visited Bruce and invited him to join an elite vigilante group, the League of Shadows, led by Ra's al Ghul. Bruce was freed and traveled up a mountain to the League's headquarters to begin his training, first stumbling upon a rare blue flower growing near the temple that Ducard told him to pick up along the way. Throughout the time being, Bruce was taught the will to act against corruption and mind his surroundings, which Ducard explained made the death of his parents his father's fault, overcoming his fears in the process. But when he was ordered to execute a criminal as his initiation, Bruce learned that the League were intending to use him to commit urbicide on Gotham, believing it has reach the point of its decadent corruption and that its destruction was was necessary to restore the world to balance. In response, he refused their cause and escaped by lighting the League's temple on fire, killing Ra's in the process. Bruce rescued an unconscious Ducard from the wreckage and left him to recover at a village, where the village doctor promised to tell him that his new pupil saved his life. As he exited the village, he bumped into the same boy from Tanga, who gave him a clay bowl of rice and bread as a gift in exchange for the plum. The young billionaire continued begging for food and money until he had enough to make a telephone call to Alfred in the United States. By the time he arrived in Kathmandu two days later after stopping at Hector's place, he walked onto a landing strip as the Wayne Enterprises jet carrying Alfred landed and boarded it when the butler saw him. Throughout the plane ride back to Gotham, Bruce shared his idea to fight crime, hoping to show Gothamites that their city doesn't belong to crime and corruption. Alfred agreed to this by saying that during the depression, Bruce's parents believed that the example their monorail system represented would inspire the wealthy of Gotham to save their city, and in a way, their murders shocked the wealthy and powerful into action to do so. In Bruce's opinion, his idea may not be put in place as the Waynes' son, but as a symbol which he could be incorruptible, everlasting, and terrifying. Alfred assumed that as his master is taking on the criminal underworld, the symbol must be a persona meant to protect those he cared about, who he implied might not believe Bruce to be coming back after being gone for seven years; as it turned out, Wayne Enterprises' CEO, William Earle, declared Bruce dead to liquidate his shareholding (which had brought in an enormous capital) and take the company public, but Bruce was glad to have left the rest to Alfred. The plane refueled itself once in three days before reaching its destination back in Gotham City, and Bruce often wondered what dramas have been occurring on the city streets. Overcoming His Worst Fear Retaking residence in Wayne Manor, the last of the Waynes planned on making his return known to Gotham, but decided to first accomplish a few things without being scrutinized by gossip hounds, such as investigating the exact nature of the League of Shadows. Alfred spent the first five days back looking up the society in various libraries and universities, but when he met Bruce in a library on the sixth day, the butler implied that the reason why there was a lack of info on it is because some doubt the League's existence. So Bruce headed to Gotham University to meet with it's chief researcher, Sandra Flanders, to see if she could find anything about Ra's and his elite, since she enjoyed challenges. In the sparse information collected from Alfred, he came to learn that the League of Shadows was in existence for centuries, as mentioned by a piece of parchment copied from an Irish, a fragment sent from Paris to Berlin at the height of the French Revolution, a cryptic message sent from a clothier in London to a Manchester sea captain in 1866 and a monograph on secret societies done by an Oxford don in the early 20th century. Flanders' information, on the other hand, showed the translation of Ra's' name in Arabic ("Head of the Demon") and mentioned a story about Ra's himself written on a parchment that was acquired from North Africa and translated by an eccentric collector named Berthold Cavally, who died in a house fire in 1952 and the story was saved from the ashes by his nephew James and displayed at the Olympus Gallery in New York City. Using Alfred's credit card number, Bruce made reservation for a plane trip there and a hotel stay in the Manhattan Plaza. At the gallery, the patrons refused to offer the parchment since it was being used to honor James Cavally's death in a plane crash that happened overnight, and one of the auctioneers, Wesley Carter, explained it couldn't be sold unless the patrons hear from Cavally's lawyers. But Bruce predicted that they would say no about selling the parchment and simply took it later that afternoon, sneaking his way out of the building to the rooftop undetected. Arriving back in Gotham, he and Alfred sat down in the Wayne Manor kitchen and saw the Cavally-discovered story theorized that Ra's was once a physician who lived centuries ago and was implored to save the son of an Arabian ruler known the Salimbok from death. He succeeded by lowering the prince into a death-reviving pit that drove him to the edge of insanity, killing the Physician's wife Sora. The furious Samlimbok had the Physician imprisoned with his wife's corpse in a cage lowered deep into another pit in the desert, but when the Physician escaped and bathed in his own stenchful pit, the substance within gave him immortal life. Bruce found it hard to believe, but nonetheless moved onto investigating key individuals in Gotham's justice system. He started this objection by spying on Gordon from a tailor shop as the sergeant and his corrupt partner, Det. Arnold Flass, were stopping at a liquor store, and then on Rachel as she was talking with her boss, District Attorney Carl Finch, were discussing at the courthouse about Falcone's buy on half of the city. While listing much about them from newspaper articles in the manor's living room, he spotted a giant bat flying overhead. This reminded Bruce of the bats he encountered in the well and headed down there into the caves below to overcome his worst fear. The bats living down inside that he was afraid of fluttered around him and welcomed him as an old friend to their home as Bruce became inspired by them to make the symbol he discussed with Alfred earlier into a vigilante persona, which he later called "the Batman". Becoming The Bat With his worst fear overcome, the young industrial heir decided that it was time to reestablish his connections to Wayne Enterprises. He arrived at Wayne Tower the next morning to find Earle at a board meeting about "what Thomas Wayne would have done", but checked in with the secretary, Jessica, to wait and see him. Jessica was pretty surprised to see Thomas Wayne's son in front of her and asked him to teach her indoor golf, thus making Earle frustrated after calling her on the comm twice yet shocked to come out of the meeting room to see Bruce alive. As word spread around Gotham about Bruce's return, he and Earle sat down and discussed the company going public. Bruce offered to be handsomely rewarded with his shares, but instead of looking to interfere with the corporation's ownership, he hoped to apply for a job within it. He asked to start at the Applied Sciences Division, and Earle made cheers to welcome the young Wayne home. While down at the workplace, the division's chief activist, former board member Lucius Fox, who helped build Gotham's monorail system with Bruce's father, introduced Bruce to many environmental and defense prototypes not in production, such as a caviler utility harness, a gas-powered magnetic grapple gun, and a bullet-proof Nomex survival suit made of caviler bi-weave. Finding the equipment useful for his mission as Batman, Bruce requested to borrow it for spelunking. He didn't want Earle to know about him borrowing such stuff, but the way Fox saw it, the equipment belonged to the billionaire anyway. With Alfred's help, Bruce began construction on a secret base inside the Batcave, and the butler showed him a secret elevator leading from the cave up to Wayne Manor, explaining that his young master's great-great grandfather used it to hide escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad during the Civil War. To turn his new caviler suit into Batman's self styled "Batsuit", Bruce upgraded it with unique gauntlets given to him during his League of Shadows training and spray-painted all black without carvings to make it unrecognizable to the Wayne Board, but first needed a bat mask to conceal his identity. Alfred suggested that if they ordered the main part of the mask's cowl from Singapore via a shell corporation, they would put it together from a large order to avoid suspicion. Testing his suit and harness on his first night out as a vigilante, Bruce used it to break into Gordon's office at the police station to ask him about Falcone's criminal operation to bring a shipment of drugs into the city every week and the Gotham City Police Department's inability to stop him. With the back of his head pressed on by a common office stapler (which was thought to be a pistol), Gordon explained without turning his head that he's payed up with the right people, and the only possible methods against would leverage from corrupt District Court Judge Juez Faden, whose best friendship with Falcone got him listed on the crimelord's payroll, and an assistant DA to provide it for prosecution. Bruce realized immediately that the DA in question could only be Rachel, and suggested that they form an alliance, but Gordon believed him to be "just some nut" and chased him alongside two other cops up to the roof of the building. Luckily, the ski-masked billionaire escaped their gunshots by soaring into the air, but since the suit didn't have wings, he ended up falling headfirst into the railing of another fire escape which collapsed in his grasp. Realizing that the bat was to become was going to need wings, Bruce returned to Applied Sciences to request lightweight fabric to use for what he claimed was base-jumping. Knowing just the thing, Fox introduced him to a sheet of black "memory cloth" activated by electric currents from a thick canvas glove to change shape, but though Bruce thought the activist might be uncomfortable with the unusual requests, Fox replied that he didn't really care. So the the younger man borrowed it anyway, but in addition asked to have a directional microphone that he would later incorporate into Batman's mask and test out an armored vehicle that caught his eye which Fox called "the Tumbler", purchasing the latter in black. Later that night, Bruce began to test the microphone by using it to eavesdrop on a conversation between Falcone and Flass, in which the mob boss mentioned that the last of his drug shipments would be arriving at the docks on Thursday evening and asked the cop to meet him there. When Flass put in that word on the streets that Rachel was sniffing around in their operation, he and Falcone plotted to get her out of the way by having her mugged and assassinated. As soon as their shipment from Singapore arrived, Bruce and Alfred spent the next three days testing the thousand batter helmet-like bat masks to see if one of them was unbreakable enough, which one was. In addition, Bruce added to the Batsuit a utility belt cut from the harness and hooked the grapple guns in its buckle holsters, sewed for the canvas gloves electrical contacts in the fingers powered by a tiny but powerful battery on the wrists' undersides to straighten out the memory cloth, and carved from metal a set custom-made bat-shaped boomerangs that he dubbed Batarangs so that his criminal targets could share his dread. With the same bat design spray-painted on the suit's chest, the construction of Batman was complete, but the drug shipment arrival was only a week away. So, the young billionaire decided to wait by leaving again for a brief vacation in northern California, where he saw sights in and around San Francisco and went hang gliding on Mt. Tamalpais for a few days. He did, though, think it as a mistake to leak his hang gliding plans since it would attract attention to the abilities he wanted to be kept hidden. But to his relief when he returned to Gotham by commercial carrier, no one saw him stop at several Falcone-owned areas to install tiny microphones on the following night. At his last stop, located in Falcone's apartment near the theater district, Bruce listened as Falcone announced from inside that the next night was when the shipment would be docking, then went back to the Batcave to prepare Batman for his strike. Once the ship docked and the Falcone Crime Family started unloading it, Batman spied on Falcone as he entrusted the drugs sewn inside stuffed bears to his men for them to take to their buyers and the drugs sewn inside stuffed rabbits to Flass for a purpose that the vigilante didn't quite hear. Wasting no time, Batman proceeded to disrupt the shipment, first making the thugs aware of his presence by pulling one of them, Steiss, into one of the open crates and descended upon two more, Bigger and Alfie. Finally emerging in the sight of the Falcone's remaining men, a firefight broke out and Batman was able to subdue every thug. Falcone tried to escape but found his limousine driver unconscious, leaving the vigilante on his heels enough time to grab him from inside and head-butt him, knocking him out. Leaving the mobster tied to a searchlight near his bound thugs which formed a makeshift Bat-Signal, Batman arrived at a monorail station and disrupted the rest of the crime family's attempt on Rachel's life, leaving her with the leverage she was looking for against Faden. Investigating The Fear Toxin Shipment While investigating the drugs in the shipment, Batman is stunned by Dr. Jonathan Crane, an Arkham Asylum psychiatrist on Falcone's payroll, who sprays him with a powerful hallucinogen. Alfred rescues him, using an anti-toxin developed by Fox to save him. Crane later poisons Rachel after showing her that the toxin, which is lethal in vapor form, is being piped into the city water supply. Batman saves her and attacks Crane with his own poison. When the police arrive at Arkham to arrest Crane, Batman escapes with Rachel in the Batmobile. After administering the antidote to her in the Batcave, he gives her two vials of it for Gordon – one for inoculating himself and the other for mass-production. Later, in Wayne Manor, Bruce is confronted at his birthday celebration by a group of League of Shadows ninjas led by Ducard, who reveals himself to be the real Ra's al Ghul, and that the man killed earlier was a decoy. Ra's, who had been conspiring with Crane the entire time, plans to destroy Gotham by distributing the toxin via the city's water supply, and vaporizing it with a microwave emitter stolen from Wayne Enterprises. Bruce dismisses his guests by insulting them while pretending to be drunk, and fights briefly with Ra's while the League set fire to the Manor. At the last minute, Bruce escapes the inferno with Alfred's help. Batman arrives at the Narrows section of Gotham to aid the police in battling psychotic criminals, including Crane, now calling himself "Scarecrow", whom the League set free. Rachel is briefly confronted by Crane, but quickly wards him off with a taser before being chased by more inmates. After saving her, Batman reveals his identity to her, and leaves Gordon in control of the Batmobile to stop the elevated train used to transport the weapon to the city's central water-hub. Batman battles Ra's aboard the train, then escapes just as Gordon topples the elevated line using the Batmobile's autocannons, leaving Ra's to crash to the ground and perish in the explosion. Following the battle, Batman becomes a public hero. Bruce gains control of Wayne Enterprises and installs Fox as the new CEO, firing Earle. However, he is unable to hold onto Rachel, who cannot reconcile her love for Bruce with his dual life as Batman. Newly-promoted Lieutenant Gordon unveils a Bat-Signal for Batman. Gordon mentions that they will have their hands full finding all of the psychopaths released from Arkham by Ra's, and in particular notes a criminal who also has "a taste for the theatrical" and leaves Joker playing cards at all of his crime scenes. Batman promises to investigate it. As Batman is leaving, Gordon mentions that he has not thanked Batman for what he has done. Batman replies that Gordon will never have to, and flies off into the night. The Dark Knight In Gotham City, the Joker robs a mob-owned bank with his accomplices, whom he tricks into killing each other. That night, Batman interrupts a meeting between the Chechen and the Scarecrow, but suffers wounds from the Chechen's dogs, allowing the Chechen to escape and prompting Batman to redesign his batsuit. Batman and Lieutenant James Gordon contemplate including new district attorney Harvey Dent in their plan to eradicate the mob, as he could be the public hero Batman cannot be. However, Batman wonders if Dent can be trusted. Bruce runs into Rachel Dawes and Dent, who are dating, and after talking to Dent, he realizes he is sincere and decides to host a fundraiser for him. Mob bosses Sal Maroni, Gambol and the Chechen meet with other underworld gangsters to discuss both Batman and Dent. Lau, a Chinese mafia accountant, informs them that he has hidden their money and fled to Hong Kong in an attempt to pre-empt Gordon's plan to seize the mobsters' funds. The Joker arrives unexpectedly, offering to kill Batman in return for half of the mob's money, an offer the mobsters refuse. In Hong Kong, Batman captures Lau and delivers him to the Gotham City police, where Lau agrees to testify against the mob. In retaliation, the mobsters hire the Joker to kill Batman and Lau. The Joker issues an ultimatum to Gotham, stating that if Batman does not reveal his identity to the public, people will die each day. When Commissioner Gillian B. Loeb, Judge Janet Surillo, who was presiding over the mob trials, and Gordon are murdered, the public's increasing pressure prompts Wayne to decide to reveal his identity. Before he can, Dent announces at a press conference that he himself is Batman and is arrested as part of a plan to draw the Joker out of hiding. The Joker attempts to ambush the police convoy carrying Dent, but Batman and Gordon, the latter whom had faked his death, intervene and capture him. In recognition of his actions, Gordon is appointed police commissioner. Later that night, Dent and Rachel disappear. At the police station, Batman interrogates the Joker, who reveals that their police escorts were on Maroni's payroll, and have placed them in warehouses rigged with explosives on opposite sides of the city — far enough apart so that Batman cannot save them both. Batman leaves to save Rachel, while Gordon and the police head after Dent. With the aid of a smuggled bomb, the Joker escapes police custody with Lau. Batman arrives to save Rachel but instead finds Dent. Batman successfully saves Dent, but the ensuing explosion disfigures Dent's face. Gordon arrives at Rachel's location too late, and she is killed when the bomb detonates. In the hospital, Dent's grief drives him to madness. Aboard a cargo ship, the Joker burns Lau to death atop a pile of the mob's money and has the Chechen killed, before taking control of his men. The Joker goes to the hospital and convinces Dent to exact revenge on the corrupt cops and mobsters responsible for Rachel's death, as well as Batman and Gordon. The Joker frees Dent—who allows the Joker to live after flipping his coin—then blows up the hospital and hijacks a bus filled with patients. Out of the hospital, Dent goes on a personal vendetta confronting Maroni and the corrupt cops one by one, also deciding their fates with the flip of a coin. The Joker announces to the public that anyone left in Gotham at nightfall will be subject to his rule. With the bridges and tunnels out of the city closed due to a bomb threat by the Joker, authorities begin evacuating people by ferry. The Joker places explosives on two of the ferries—one ferry with convicts, who were evacuated in an effort to keep the Joker from freeing them, and the other with civilians—telling the passengers the only way to save themselves is to trigger the explosives on the other ferry; otherwise, he will destroy both at midnight. Meanwhile, Batman locates the Joker and the hostages he has taken. Realizing the Joker has disguised the hostages as his own men, Batman is forced to attack both Gordon's SWAT team and the Joker's henchmen in order to save the real hostages. Meanwhile, the Joker's plan to destroy the ferries fails after the passengers on both decide not to destroy each other. Batman locates and subdues the Joker, preventing him from destroying both ferries, but refuses to kill him. The Joker acknowledges that Batman is truly incorruptible, but that Dent was not, and that he has unleashed Dent upon the city. Leaving the Joker for the SWAT team, Batman leaves in search of Dent. At the remains of the building where Rachel died, Batman finds Dent holding Gordon and his family at gunpoint. Dent judges the innocence of Batman, himself, and Gordon's son through three coin tosses. Because of the first two flips, he shoots Batman in the abdomen and spares himself. Before Dent can determine the boy's fate, Batman, who was wearing body armor, tackles him over the side of the building. Gordon's son is saved, but Batman and Dent fall, and Dent is killed. Batman and Gordon realize that the morale of the city would suffer if Dent's murders became known. Batman persuades Gordon to preserve Dent's image by holding "Batman" responsible for the murders. Gordon destroys the Bat-Signal, and a manhunt for Batman begins. The Dark Knight Rises 8 years after the manhunt for Batman, the city is at peace. Organized Crime has disappeared, and Bruce Wayne has retired from his job as Batman, and has become a recluse. In a party at Wayne Manor celebrating the Dent Act and the clean city, he watches from his roof. Later, he meets a maid, Selina Kyle whom steals his mother's pearls, steals his fingerprints, and kidnaps Congressmen Byron Gilly. She later gives them to Phillip Stryver, an assistant to Bruce's business rival John Daggett. Bruce searches for Selina on his supercomputer in the Batcave -- which had been rebuilt -- and discuses with Alfred about his current conditoin and the way he's been living. John Blake, an orphan cop stops by and tells Bruce he knows who he was. He also tells him that some " details " might need help. He gets his leg checked, goes to a party where Selina is, and takes the pearls back, only to lose his car. At the same time, Miranda Tate urges him to restart the nuclear reactor project, which he shut down because he learned it could become a weapon. Later, Bane attacks the Gotham Stock Exchange and bankrupts Wayne Enterprises and Wayne. In response to this, Bruce puts back on the cape and cowl, and Batman returns to Gotham City, although being chased by the entire police force and barely escaping with Lucius Fox's new invention, a winged vehicle he calls " The Bat" . At this point, Alfred, concerned for Bruce, reveals he burned the letter Rachel gave him , which said that she would marry Harvey Dent, and not be with him. The result is Alfred resigning, doing so dissuade him. Bruce, concerned that Daggett would take over Wayne Enterprises, and thus the reactor, asks Miranda Tate to take over. Bruce promises the software Kyle needs to erase her criminal record, and later, Batman agrees to give it to her if she takes him to Bane, only to be betrayed. Bane and Batman fight, only for Bane to break Batman's back, and puts him in a foreign and ancient prison, where Bane reveals his intentions to destroy Gotham with the League of Shadows. As Gotham burns, the inmates reveal the story of how Ra's al Ghul's child, whom was born in the prison, escaped. Bruce assumes the child is Bane. A few months later, he recovers and trains, before escaping and returning to Gotham. He gets help from all his allies (except Alfred) to stop the bomb from detonating. As Batman, he frees the cops, before they clash with Bane's forces. Batman and Bane duel once more, but Tate stabs him in an act of betrayal. She reveals herself to be Talia al Ghul, and thus the child who escaped the Pit. She reveals her plans to finish her father's work and attempts to destroy Gotham, but Gordon blocks the signal and Talia goes to find the bomb. Kyle kills Bane, and the two of them track Talia. They knock her truck down, and make it crash, but she remotely destroys the reactor. With both villians dead, Batman takes the Bomb over the bay, where it explodes. Batman and Bruce Wayne are presumed dead, but the former is honored as a hero in the eyes of Gotham City. Wayne Manor becomes an orphanage, Fox learns Bruce fixed the Bat's Autopilot, and Gordon sees the Bat-Signal fixed. Alfred goes to Florence, to see Bruce is okay, and with Selina, proving that Rachel was wrong, and that he has finally moved on from Gotham and Batman once and for all. Abilities Batman is a highly skilled martial artist having been trained by the League of Shadows and Ra's al Ghul personally in ninjutsu and other martial arts, Batman has achieved such feats as single handedly subduing a swat team and taking out a group of the league of shadows ninjas with minimal injury; even before his training with Ra's al Ghul. Bruce Wayne was able to fight an entire gang of convicts in a prison brawl with the guards locking him in solitary for the other inmates "protection". Batman is also highly intelligent, being a brilliant detective (known by some as "the world's greatest detective"), and an expert planner. He has proven himself exceptionally good at stealth being able to disappear in the middle of people's sentences and sneaking up on others unexpectedly. With his vast wealth and company Batman has access to some of the world's greatest equipment and technology to improve his performance. Relying on intellect, detective skills, science and technology, wealth, physical prowess, and intimidation in his war on crime, Batman is a force greatly feared by Gotham's underworld. Personality Bruce Wayne is very dedicated and determined to his work of crime-fighting, sometimes employing illegal and morally dubious tactics (like torture) but ultimately for the good of Gotham. Despite his dark past and serious work, Bruce has displayed a sense of humor around his butler Alfred and a romantic side around his love-interest Rachel. Although possessing great hate and anger towards criminals, he has proven himself a very caring and selfless person, constantly putting his life on the line to save innocent lives and bringing the most dangerous criminals to justice for society's protection. Perhaps Bruce's strongest characteristic is his strong moral code to never kill, believing all men deserve a trial and to do so makes him no better than his enemies, because of this he was been noted by the Joker as being "incorruptible". Although he did let Ra's al Ghul die, saying "I won't kill you, but I don't have to save you", he has shown compassion for his enemies, such as when he saved his employee Mr. Reese from getting killed, who was just about to sell him out by telling the public he was Batman. Bruce Wayne has also shown himself to have a good deal of faith in people as evidenced in ''The Dark Knight when he was confident that the people on the ferries wouldn't blow each other up (which they didn't), which is contrast to the Joker believing people to be just as bad as him when under enough pressure. To the public, Bruce Wayne takes on the facade of a irresponsible, fun-seeking playboy in order to avoid suspicion of his alter-ego, while as Batman he reveals his dark, intimidating personality in the form of a bat (his childhood fear for his enemies to dread) to frighten the criminals he stands against, believing theatricality to help him seem more than a man, but a symbol. Bruce Wayne's ultimate goal is to bring order and justice to Gotham city, as opposed to the Joker who's ultimate goal is to bring chaos and anarchy. Relationships *Batman - Hero identity. *Thomas Wayne - Father. *Martha Wayne - Mother. *Alfred Pennyworth - Butler and Guardian. *Rachel Dawes - Childhood Best Friend and First Love Interest. *Jim Gordon - Friend and Ally. *Lucius Fox - Employee, friend, and technical support. *Robin John Blake - Ally and Successor. *Selina Kyle/Catwoman - Third Love Interest and Enemy turned Ally. *Ra's al Ghul/Henri Ducard - Teacher and Enemy. *Dr. Jonathan Crane/Scarecrow - Enemy. *The Joker - Enemy. *Harvey Dent/Two-Face - Friend turned Enemy. *Bane - Enemy. *Miranda Tate/Talia al Ghul - Second Love Interest and Employee turned Enemy. Bases of Operation Batcave The Batcave was Batman's base of operations. It was a cave beneath Wayne Manor. Wayne Manor Wayne Manor was Bruce's ancestral home. It was destroyed by Ra's al Ghul at the end of Batman Begins, ''but it was later rebuilt before the events of ''The Dark Knight Rises. Penthouse When Wayne Manor was destroyed, Bruce moved into a penthouse. This was where the Joker first searched for Harvey Dent and, according to Alfred, where Bruce doesn't sleep in much. Warehouse After Wayne Manor was destroyed, the Batcave cannot be used so Batman moves his operations to the Warehouse. Weapons and Equipment Batsuit: Batman wears a bat-masked "Nomex survival suit" derived from Lucius Fox's Research and Development program within Wayne Enterprises' Applied Sciences Division to conceal his identity and to frighten criminals. This particular incarnation of the Batsuit is given the most complete description ever seen in a Batman film and possibly the comic books. It was originally intended for advanced military use, but, with its $300,000 price tag, was considered to be too expensive for the United States Army and military in general. Based on an advanced infantry armor system constructed from Nomex, the first layer of protection is an undersuit with built-in temperature regulators designed to keep the wearer at a comfortable temperature in almost any condition. The second layer of protection consists of armor built over the chest, calves, thighs, arms, and back. This armor features a kevlar bi-weave that can stop slashing weapons and can also deflect any bullet short of a straight shot impact, and reinforced joints that allow maximum flexibility and mobility. The armor was then coated with a black latex material to dampen Bruce's heat signature, making him difficult to detect with night-vision equipment. Made of a graphite material, the cowl acts as a protective helmet. The cowl's Kevlar lining is supposed to be bulletproof. A manufacturing defect in the graphite used in the production of the first shipment of the cowl's components made its outer shell incapable of withstanding blunt trauma (a flaw Alfred demonstrates to Bruce Wayne using a baseball bat). Batman apparently takes on the Falcone Crime Family at the docks with the defective helmet. The second shipment was supposed to fix this problem. An advanced eavesdropping device is concealed within the cowl's right ear and enables Batman to listen in on conversations from a distance. The Batsuit is changed in the next film The Dark Knight. In this new design, the bodysuit is made of hardened kevlar plates on a titanium-dipped fiber and is broken into multiple pieces of armor over a more flexible bodysuit for greater mobility. As a trade-off, however, the flexible armor leaves Batman more vulnerable to injury from bullets or knifes in favor of increased flexibility and lighter weight. The cowl of the Batsuit, which in previous film incarnations has been attached to the shoulder and neck, is now a separate component inspired by the design of motorcycle helmets, allowing the wearer to freely swivel and move his neck without moving the rest of his upper torso as was characteristic in all the previous cinematic versions of the Batsuit. Also, a strong electric current runs through it that prevents anyone except Bruce Wayne from removing it, further protecting his identity. The bat emblem is smaller than the one in Batman Begins and it is more similar to the Batman logo used in the posters. Gliding Cape: 'Batman's cape is made of "memory cloth," also developed by Fox. It is essentially flexible in its normal state, but becomes semi-rigid in a fixed form (Batman's wings in the movie) when an electric current is passed through it from the microcircuits in his right glove. Bruce also adds metal gauntlets with scallops on the forearms, an innovation derived from his experience as a pupil of the League of Shadows. Mainly used to block against knives or other stabbing weapons, Bruce managed to surprise Ra's by breaking the blade of his ninjaken in multiple places with the gauntlets. Furthermore, when the Batsuit was changed in ''The Dark Knight, it does not have an external 'memory cloth' cape, but, rather, a concealed cape in compartments behind the shoulder blades, which eject, connecting to the suits limbs to provide a hang-glider-like functionality with a bat-motif design. '''Retractable Techtonic Plates: The iconic blades on the sides of Batman's new gauntlets are retractable and are capable of firing outwards as projectiles. Sonar Goggles: The new Batsuit is equipped with "sonar-vision", where signals emitted by mobile phones are converted into images in a similar way to sonar. In order to view the said images, white lenses fold down from Batman's cowl to cover his eyes. Aesthetically this gives Batman, for the first time in a live action film, the 'white eyed' appearance he is always depicted with in the comic-books and animated series. Utility Belt: Batman wears a specialized belt to equip his crime-fighting gear. The utility belt is a modified climbing harness, with magnetized impact-resistant pouches and canisters attached to the belt at ergonomic points for ease of reach. It carries a magnetic gas-powered grapple gun, an encrypted cell phone, Batarangs, a medical kit, smoke bombs, mini explosives, periscope, remote control for the Tumbler, mini-cam, money, and other unspecified equipment. Batman removed the belt's shoulder and chest straps because they constricted his movements. [[Batarang|'Batarang']]:' Batman uses a roughly bat-shaped throwing weapon that's name is a portmanteau of bat and boomerang. Although Batarangs are named after boomerangs, they are more similar to shurikens, fitting with Batman's training as a ninja. He used one to knock out a light in ''Batman Begins. In The Dark Knight Rises, Batman uses smaller and sharper Batarangs laced with sedative to pierce the necks of his opponents, and knock them out. '''Grappling Gun: Batman uses this special item to scale up or rappel down tall buildings, or swing between Gotham City skyscrapers on successive lines. Similar to a grappling hook and speargun, the line gun uses a strong clamp attached to a high-tensil wire for scaling surfaces and/or traversing gaps. It can be recovered by releasing the clamp and rewinding the cable. It was based from one that is designed as compact climbing gear for commando units. It is propelled with compressed air works with a magnetic Enterhaken. The thin climbing cable was tested on a load-carrying capacity of 350 lbs. High-Frequency Transponder: The special sonic device is an artifact Batman uses to summon bats. When it is not used, it is equipped in the left boot heel. When used at a lower frequency the sound can cause people to have incapacitating headaches. Vehicles * Tumbler ** Batpod *Batglider *The Bat Behind the scenes *In both The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises' end credits, Christian Bale is only credited with playing Bruce Wayne, and not Batman. * The first costume used in Begins was similar to the all black WB Batsuits that preceded it. He was unable to turn his head throughout the entire first film and first third of the second. Bale became the first WB Batman able to fully turn his head, when he got his second costume mid-way through the sequel. External links * Category:Characters Category:Heroes Category:Males Category:Wayne Enterprises Category:Wayne Family Category:Batman Begins Characters Category:The Dark Knight Characters Category:The Dark Knight Rises Characters